mie

i just landed in oslo - however, my head is apparently still traveling in coffee, i've dreamt about coffee descriptions the last few days - including on the plane. after the award ceremony friday night the following days were spent visiting coffee farms around carmo and pocos in mina gerais and even a few flights of nice coffees were cupped. also, a nice sunday afternoon brunch with new and old coffee friends took place in sao paulo before we all took off. i feel exhausted after traveling, yet very happy about the trip all in all. or to quote andrew barnett: "has everyone been nice to you today?". the answer is "yes! more than i could ever hope for". people have been generous and kind - spending their time with us, asking about coffee and taking care of us at all times.

about the winning coffees - lots of good coffees from carmo de minas (yellow bourbon) in minas gerais. the winning farm, faenda kaquend and third place winner fazenda tijuco preto were my over all favorites. also the coffee that was tide for third place, submitted by fazenda rainha near the city sao sebastiao da grama in sao paulo region (yellow bourbon as well) came out sweet, full bodied with elegant and clear acitidy. for brasil, all of these farms are relatively high, around 1300 masl. what i also found interesting, was that we saw (and tasted) a few impeccably processed naturals. however, most of them cupped really fresh and needs more resting (none of the coffees that went past the pre-selection done by the national jury were naturals).

the coffees were amazing, however only 100 farms submitted coffees to the pre-selection this year. something that needs discussion, regarding the fact that brasil is the biggest producing coffee nation in the world. we spent hours and hours driving through farms, they were huge!